Blood and Iron
by Mrs. HopeEstheim
Summary: In which babysitting one little girl entails much more than anyone had bargained for. GaLe, slight NaLu, maybe mentions of Gruvia.
1. The Little Girl

**I shouldn't do this, but I've got an idea briefly jotted down and I can't fall asleep very easily in my dorm because I freeze my ass off…so yeah. I'm typing it.**

**This is the first chapter of my newest idea. It's a GaLe fic, which is different…especially since this is going to be more than two little connected oneshots like my GaLe **_**So Wrong, So Right**_**. And as with all of my first chapters, THIS CHAPTER IS RATHER SHORT. And considering that I'm in uni now, I might keep updates for this one shorter.**

**It's also really early in the morning so forgive any fail and let me go back and fix it later. XD**

**Anyway, please enjoy **_**Blood and Iron**_**, chapter 1.**

* * *

Levy McGarden stood in front of the request board, ignoring the riot going on behind her in the guild even though Nab from beside her had been hit with a flying chair and joined in the fray. She found that the best time to search for a job was while her old team was busy with surviving a free-for-all, because she could pick out jobs that she'd be able to handle alone—not that she didn't like her teammates, because they were still some of her very best friends, but they were just so much _older_ now and not as fun as they used to be.

So the blue-haired solid script mage perused the board with her keen eyes, but was soon dismayed when she realized that there wasn't really _anything_ meant for her branch of magic alone. She found it rather irritating that she couldn't even go out on a job without dragging someone along with her. All Levy wanted to do was take a fairly simple job, like helping at the library or something, just so she could manage to pay her rent at Fairy Hills. Was that too much to ask?

Natsu's easily recognizable voice roared something at Gray in the background, but Levy was still valiantly staring at the jobs on the board, tongue in her cheek. She knew she was being stubborn, but she just really wanted to do a solo job. It had been _weeks_ since she'd been able to go it alone, and she missed it.

"Finding anything you'd like to take?" a sweet voice said from just over Levy's right shoulder, and she turned slightly to look at the lovely Mirajane.

"No," the bookworm grudgingly admitted, running a hand through her hair exasperatedly. The only one she'd finally spotted, tucked under a request for the retrieval of a wedding ring from a deep sea cave near Hargeon, was a request to walk a four hundred seventy-three pound dog for a measly one thousand jewel. That would only pay one hundredth of a month's rent!

"That's too bad," Mira frowned concernedly, her gaze turning to the board as well. "Rent's due rather soon, isn't it?"

"I've still got two weeks," Levy told the white-haired woman quickly, "I just wish I could get a few jobs at around seventy thousand apiece. I could pay rent _and _buy groceries and books."

The light, bell-like laugh of the eldest Strauss sibling rang in the air as she laid a gentle, delicate hand on the solid script mage's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll find something you can take before the time's up!"

_I hope so_, Levy thought inwardly, but outwardly she simply nodded. Mira seemed satisfied for the time being and she glided through the mess of the room to return to her post at the bar, ready to pour all the drinks when everyone got tired out from their incessant fighting. The blue-haired woman shook her head lightly as Erza's cake flew across the room and hit Lucy in the back of the head. The blonde was going to get really angry about that—it was her slight vanity at work.

With one last look at the request board, Levy sighed and made her way around the edge of the room to slip into a barstool by Mira almost unnoticed.

Sitting at the bar still didn't help, and in a few moments the dejected solid script mage's feelings began to lift as she pummeled Mickey backwards with a well-placed _baseball bat_ in the air. The _wall_ she used really helped when Visitar tried to speed toward her, and in quick succession she wrote _soap_ and sent it to the floor. Everyone in the area started to slip and slide, effectively missing Levy if they had been trying to attack her.

Oh, yes. Venting some of her frustrations on her fight-happy nakama felt much better than sulking would have.

She couldn't help but notice that Natsu had purposely gone over to the darkest corner in the guild to drag the iron dragonslayer into the battle by any means necessary—he tried pulling on Gajeel's foot, and an iron rod came out of the shadows and drilled him in the chin and then the fire dragonslayer attempted bribing him with a piece of aluminum (Levy wasn't even sure how much iron was in aluminum, if any at all—she'd have to look it up)…but to no avail. What finally got Gajeel irritated enough to join in was Macao flying across the room and right into his head.

With a little sigh and a grin, the bookworm slid away from the fray and picked her bag up, hitching it upon her shoulders firmly. As much as pummeling her family helped relieve her sour mood, she decided that reading and editing the chapter manuscript tucked away in her bag would help calm her down a bit more. She inched her way to the door, making sure to duck the flying underwear that certainly belonged to Gray and, when she reached the exit, she glanced back. Jet and Droy were trying to sneak up on Gajeel while he was busy with Elfman, so the blue-haired solid script mage smirked a little deviously and wrote _iron_ in the air, sending it flying and pinning her teammates to the ground right as the iron dragonslayer turned around.

Spying the two under the _iron_, he looked up, his red eyes searching for the shrimp that had to be responsible for this. He spied her at the door and she waggled her fingers at him, smiling, before disappearing. Gajeel smirked and lifted the word in one hand, contemplating it briefly before taking a bite and glaring Jet and Droy down in a menacing manner.

Meanwhile, Levy was making her way to Fairy Hills, walking quickly with her head down. Despite everything she'd just done—brawled with her friends and helped Gajeel against her own Shadowgear teammates—she still itched to find a job she could handle alone.

"I'll check again tomorrow," the bluenette finally decided firmly, nodding to herself.

Fairy Hills came into view shortly after and within fifteen minutes, Levy was in her comfy pajamas with a cup of hot cocoa sitting on the coffee table next to her as she snuggled into her armchair with a blanket, a red pen, and Lu-chan's newest chapter. It was the one where the servant girl was finally going to meet the prince, and Levy had been waiting for it for weeks. And even if that idea—the servant girl and a prince—wasn't original, the way her blonde best friend had started writing it made the solid script mage eager for more.

"Let's see…" Levy mused aloud to herself, flipping the chapter's title page aside to find her eyes graced with Lu-chan's elegant handwriting. The scribbles on the page and the tiny, cramped notes jotted in the margins always made the blue-haired girl grin because it let her know that Lucy was really serious about her writing—so serious that she repeatedly went back and edited or changed her own story chapters before she'd even let her trusted 'editor'

She was going to make a _fantastic_ author one day!

Levy grinned to herself and then read the story through once for her own pleasure before taking her red pen in hand and going at it again.

* * *

Lucy liked for Levy to be extremely critical in her edits, but it was kind of hard when the blonde was pretty near perfection as it was. There was one part where she had accidentally used a semicolon when it should have been a comma, one time she used then instead of than, four misspelled words, and one really confusingly worded sentence in an entire ten-page chapter. That was pretty damn perfect, as far as the bookworm was concerned. And as far as the story's plot itself…oh, mercy, Levy wanted the next installment already!

Levy picked up a nearby purple pen and then started to re-read the chapter again, this time adding a few minor suggestions here and there for Lucy to take or leave as she chose. Lu-chan was actually really excited when Levy suggested something, although the bluenette was never quite sure why. She didn't really leave much input.

After this second read-through, she nibbled idly on the end of the pen and just read through it a fourth time, incorporating some of her suggestions and edits to see how it read. If one of her edits didn't make sense, she would take her green pen and go back over them, but fortunately she didn't have to do that this time.

"That should be it!" she observed aloud, stretching her arms above her head as her shoulders cracked from sitting in one position for almost two hours.

And no matter what she did for the next three hours, be it showering, cooking a late-ish eight o'clock supper, talking to Laki for a moment in the hall, or even reading one of the books she'd borrowed from Lu-chan, she couldn't keep her mind from straying to thoughts of how the prince had actually seemed like such a colossal _jerk_ in his introductory scene…and then how the servant girl, Nora, had seen him secretly passing a basket of bread to a poor kid from the street.

The solid script mage wanted to know why Prince Ian was hiding that side of himself in his day-to-day palace life, and why he'd disguised himself as a peasant himself when he'd passed off the bucket of food. But she'd have to wait, because her blonde author friend would wait until she had the chapter nearly perfect before letting Levy set eyes on it.

Sometimes the petite bluenette wished she was as impulsive as Natsu so she could sneak in through Lu-chan's window and read the unfinished manuscripts like he and Erza and Gray…but Levy respected Lucy's thoughts on her story and let her write it at her own pace and she waited as patiently as possible…all of which were extremely hard to do. Levy really didn't understand why Lucy wasn't already an author like she'd been aspiring to be for years. She never thought her stories were good enough, though, and she held them back.

And here her blue-haired best female friend was fidgeting, desiring nothing more than the continuation of the story—all the way until its completion.

So Levy was secretly a bit impatient…but she didn't usually let it show around the author. She didn't want Lu-chan to feel pressured to write anything in a hurry because she knew if a chapter or even a paragraph was rushed, it could throw off the flow of an entire story.

The solid script mage sighed then, flicking off the lights and dragging herself to her bed by the light of the lamp she had on her bedside table. The book she had borrowed from Lucy that she had been unable to concentrate on earlier lay on the edge of her bed, and with one glance at it Levy knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything but the possible love story of Ian and Nora blossoming in her mind.

And sure enough, when she dreamt they were all about the forbidden love story of the prince and the servant girl.

* * *

Bag slung over her shoulder, Levy walked toward Fairy Tail the next morning at her own pace, head dancing with Lucy's characters and her dreams about them. Lu-chan really knew how to get characters stuck in someone's head, that was for sure.

"…know what we're going to do!" a woman's almost hysterical voice broke Levy's trance, and she peered carefully around the next corner, spotting a couple and a young daughter conversing. Well, the man and woman were conversing and the child was merely looking back and forth between them. Levy wasn't certain what was happening, but she hoped it wasn't some couple's spat over custody issues because she didn't like the idea of the little girl being in the middle of it.

"I can't believe they sprung this trip on me so quickly!" the man groaned, and Levy noticed by their state of dress that they were likely very wealthy citizens.

"And we can't take Lizzie with us…" the woman frowned, her face contorted in a kind of pained expression. The little girl's hand clutched her mother's pea coat as she clutched her stuffed cat to her chest.

Knowing that it wasn't a custody spat and just an issue of finding a babysitter made Levy feel a bit better, and so she stepped onto the street and headed toward the family. She had to go by them to get to Fairy Tail, and taking any other route would be a ridiculously long detour. So she decided that it wouldn't hurt to just casually walk by as if nothing was out-of-the-ordinary despite the fact that she had never seen this family on this street in her entire life.

"That's why we've filled out this—hey, miss!"

The wealthy man cut off in mid-sentence, spying the bluenette walking up the sidewalk. She looked up a bit timidly just to check and make sure that he was talking to her, and then she straightened up a little more.

"Yes? Is there something I can help you with?" she opted to be polite—or as polite as she was capable of at the moment.

"You're from Fairy Tail, aren't you?!" the woman piped up, stepping forward in an instant and looking her over. "Yes! You're the solid script mage that helps at the library sometimes, aren't you? L…Levy, right? Levy McGarden?"

Oh, wow. Levy hadn't expected this rich and well-dressed woman to even recognize her from her volunteer work, let alone to recall her name. Levy couldn't even place the wealthy woman or her husband among the people that visited the library regularly, so she felt kind of bad. The woman at least had to be a regular to the library if she recognized the Fairy Tail mage that assisted there sometimes, right?

"Yes, that's me," she said slowly, unsure of where that would get her.

"Perfect!" the man's blue eyes twinkled and his voice held a sound of relief. "You see, we're running late—in fact, if we don't leave in five minutes we'll miss our train—so can you please, _please_ take care of our Elizabeth for three days? We've got the request right here, so you can give it to your master to accept it officially, since I know you have certain channels to go through. Or even someone else at your guild, as long as they're trustworthy."

He was babbling and when he stopped for breath, his wife pitched in.

"You see, my husband was called away on business suddenly and I'm his assistant so I have to go along to help…but they told us that we weren't allowed to bring Elizabeth to the conference with us! It's really hard to find babysitters on short notice, but there's also the fact that we're afraid someone might want to kidnap her because of our position."

"We're rather high in the business world," the man chipped in rather unnecessarily. "I don't want them to use my daughter as ransom to get me to do something against my own business. I don't want Lizzie to be in that kind of danger in the first place…" he grimaced at the very thought.

"So, Miss McGarden, please take care of her for at least as long as it takes for someone else to take up the job! We're begging you! We'll pay 500,000 jewels!"

_500,000 jewels?! Do they really have that kind of cash to just throw around like that? I couldn't take that much even if I did accept the job myself!_

"Please!" the father added his plea to his wife's. The child was just looking at Levy curiously, and the bluenette felt rather put on the spot in this situation. If she refused, she'd inconvenience the rich couple, who seemed nice enough, when they were already running late. If she accepted, she could potentially lose her chance to take jobs to get her rent. If she succeeded, though, she'd have plenty to last for four months of rent and groceries…or three months of rent, groceries and new books.

"I—um—I'll take the request to the guild," Levy finally said, coming to her decision as quickly as she could because she didn't like the silence that had stretched after mention of 500,000 jewels, "And I'll take care of her, at least for a bit—"

She never finished her sentence because the brunette woman flung herself at Levy, hugging her tightly for a moment. "Thank you so much! I promise we'll pay you whatever you need, okay? Just…thank you so much! You've been a huge help! Here's the request paper," she motioned for her husband to hand it over as she reached for her young daughter's hand. The girl was probably no more than four years old. "And this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this big sister will be taking care of you for a few days, okay?"

The young girl, who had her mother's reddish-brown eyes and her father's hair, which was similar in color to Levy's own, nodded a little shyly as her mother gave her a huge kiss on the cheek and a quick hug. Her father did the same after passing the backpack that undoubtedly held the child's clothes over to Levy. He muttered a few extra things to her quietly, to which she nodded a few times. He proceeded to stand back up and ask her if she'd be a big girl, to which she replied with a soft, "yes",

"We'll be back in just a couple of days, all right, sweetheart?" he asked her, and she nodded again. The two wealthy business owners stood up then, the man grabbing their two suitcases, and both profusely thanked Levy again before promptly disappearing up the alley and leaving Levy McGarden of Fairy Tail with their daughter.

Now, it would have helped if Levy had known the basics of babysitting.

But then…if she asked Lucy for help, that was still 250,000 jewels for each of them, which would pay a good three months of Lucy's rent and leave her about enough for groceries…if you didn't count the fact that Natsu ate all of them when he snuck in…and 250,000 jewels was definitely enough for two months of her rent and some groceries. Lucy was probably better with kids, anyway, so it would be a good idea to ask her.

First, though…Levy had to get to know her charge a bit better…but she didn't even know where to begin.

* * *

**THIS CHAPTER IS SHORT. Yes, I know. I'm not usually a GaLe writer, and this chapter really only has a couple of GaLe hints. Real stuff starts to happen next chapter, though, so please be patient.**

_**TELLING ME TO UPDATE SOON WILL NOT HELP and I'm tired of it**_**. **

**Thank you and good night. It's 12:30 in the morning, I'm exhausted, and guess what? **

_**It's my fucking 19**__**th**__** birthday**_**.**

**xD**


	2. Misconceptions

**First off, I'm going to apologize. College has taken a much bigger toll than I had expected, especially since I've discovered this beast I believed to be extinct—it's called a social life. It's really odd and has its quirks, I suppose…**

**Jesting aside, it's been months since I've updated anything (AKA it's been since September), so I've decided to sit down, type this intro, and then proceed to make an entire chapter out of three paragraphs of ideas. So, wish me luck and I hope that this will sort of make up for my long absence.**

**Chapter two of **_**Blood and Iron**_** is finally here.**

**(I'm sorry it's so short this time!)**

* * *

It was almost as if the parents were trying to run away as quickly as they possibly could. One minute, the wealthy husband was whispering last minute things to his daughter and handing Levy a backpack and the next, both he and his wife were gone. How the woman moved so fast or so quietly in three-inch stilettos, Levy wasn't certain, but the fact of the matter was that they both pretty much disappeared in the span of a few seconds as Levy and the young Elizabeth examined each other awkwardly.

"Erm…hello, Elizabeth," Levy started hesitantly, crouching down so that she was nearly eye-level with the child, "I, uh, my name's Levy."

"Mama and Papa call me Lizzie," the little blue-haired girl replied, much more confidently than Levy. Elizabeth, or Lizzie, beamed brightly and the solid script mage relaxed considerably, smiling back. "I'm six!"

"Are you, now?" Levy grinned as Lizzie held up six short, plump fingers. "Such a big girl!"

The six-year-old put on a kind of pleading expression and said, "I told you how old I am," she said, "aren't you supposed to tell me how old you are, too?"

Oh, child logic. That really only worked with names, Levy thought, but she decided to oblige the little bluenette. "Oh, I'm sorry! I'm eighteen!"

Lizzie's eyes widened and she looked at her fingers, holding up all ten and exclaiming, "That's more than I can count on my fingers! Just like Mama and Papa!"

Levy giggled a little and subconsciously reached out and ruffled Lizzie's hair. It was the six-year-old's turn to giggle and wave her hands around her head in an attempt to ward off Levy's 'attack'. When she realized that the older girl was no longer messing with her hair, she lowered her arms and pouted adorably at Levy.

"Well…we should head to the guild…" Levy said, kind of to herself. She turned to Lizzie, who had cocked her head to the side and was watching her with a questioning gaze, and asked her, "Have you ever heard of Fairy Tail before?"

"Of course!" Lizzie sounded indignant. "Fairy Tail's the best mage guild _ever_!"

"Well, that's good," Levy said, beaming widely at the little girl, "because I'm a Fairy Tail mage and that's where we're going now. Is that okay with you?"

Again, the girl's eyes widened and she exclaimed, "_Yes_!" quite forcefully—so forcefully, in fact, that it was kind of squeaky. The solid-script mage grinned at her excitement and pushed herself to her feet. Her knees were kind of sore from the five or so minutes she'd spent crouching. She hefted Lizzie's backpack over one shoulder and held out a hand to the girl. Understanding immediately, the child reached forward and slipped her little fingers into Levy's grasp.

Together, the two bluenettes made their way toward Fairy Tail, the elder regaling the younger with various tales of the guild through the years.

* * *

"Whoa!" Lizzie breathed when they stood outside the doors of the guild. Levy was glad that they were back in the old guild building rather than that shack they'd had when she and the others had returned from Tenrou Island. The effect on Lizzie was _much_ greater, the solid script mage decided, than it would have been had their building still been little more than a dilapidated old structure. And, Levy felt kind of guilty to think of it this way, but she was glad she could be _proud_ of showing _this_ building to a little girl…or anyone, for that matter.

"Right?" Levy laughed a little. "Do you wanna go in?"

Lizzie looked up and nodded shortly. "C-can I?"

The older girl just grinned and pushed open the door, sending a silent thank you out to everyone in the guild for _not_ fighting as she was bringing a six-year-old through the doors.

"Welcome back, Levy!" Mira beamed across the guild, but had the same confused expression as the rest of the guild when the door opened to reveal little Lizzie holding onto her hand. "And, um, hello…?"

"C'mon, Lizzie," Levy tugged on her hand to get her attention. She'd been staring at all the other people in the room and followed Levy almost dazedly as she made her way towards Mirajane. The older girl grinned at the wonder and surprise in the child's eyes and was almost caught off guard when Lizzie gasped, squeezed her hand tighter, tugged, and pointed—stuffed cat in hand—toward a snoring, drooling Natsu Dragneel.

"Is that the Salamander?" she looked up at Levy imploringly. "The real Salamander that Mama always shows me in the Sorcerer Weekly magazine?!"

"Yeah, that's Natsu. The real thing."

It was about that time that the two reached the bar and Mira asked, "Levy…who is this?"

Lizzie was still too busy looking at everyone else to pay much attention to Mirajane until Levy nudged her and she looked up.

"Lizzie, this is Mirajane. Mira, this is Lizzie."

Reddish-brown eyes widened and the girl said, "You've been on the cover of Sorcerer Weekly!"

The eldest white-haired sibling blinked briefly, then grinned at the child as she clambered onto a stool to get a closer look at the covergirl of Fairy Tail. "That's right! Do you like Sorcerer Weekly?"

"Mama gets it and we read it together," Lizzie said proudly, puffing out her chest. She sat her toy on the countertop and pointed at it. It was red with beady little brown eyes and a blue bow around its neck. "See, I got this kitty for my birthday. Mama and I named her together! Can you guess what her name is?"

Both Mirajane and Levy contemplated the toy for a few moments. Mira glanced at Levy, who shrugged, the white-haired woman turned back to Lizzie.

"Oh, I couldn't possibly guess! Could you please tell me?"

"Her name's Titania!" the little bluenette giggled happily. "We named her after Erza Scarlet!"

Speak of the devil and she shall appear.

"Mira, could I ask for another piece of cake?" Erza asked from the other side of Lizzie, sitting down on the stool right next to the girl. The six-year-old's jaw dropped and she stared at the Titania for a few moments before Levy decided that she might kind of hero worship the requip mage.

"Oh, sure, Erza. While I get that, though, why don't you talk to Lizzie for a while? I think she'd like that," Mira gestured to the star-struck little girl.

"Lizzie?" Erza turned to see the girl and looked just as shocked as everyone else had when they'd first seen her. She looked between Lizzie and Levy a few times before asking the elder girl, "Are you related?"

"What?" Levy asked dumbly, then shook her head. "No, I'm just kind of babysitting…in fact, I need to talk to Master about it here shortly…"

"Y-you're the Titania," Lizzie cut in, and Erza looked down at her quickly. Before the redhead could say anything, the little girl turned quickly to Levy and breathed excitedly, "She's the Titania! The _real thing_, right?!"

"Yes, yes she is," Levy laughed at Lizzie's excitement, ruffling her hair again. This time, the girl couldn't find it in her heart to feel offended by the action. She was too distracted by Erza's presence to really care. "Maybe you could talk to her for a while so I can go talk to the guild master?"

"Uh-huh…"

"Here's your cake, Erza," Mira said, placing the plate with a large piece of strawberry cake on the counter in front of the redheaded woman.

"Can I get another plate and fork?" Erza suddenly asked as the white-haired woman was about to return to wiping glasses. If Levy thought Mirajane had looked confused when she'd walked in with Lizzie, it was _nothing_ compared to the expression she was wearing now. It was almost like someone had walked in and told her that Elfman had won a beauty pageant or that Nab was actually bringing a job over to her because he wanted to take it.

Wordlessly, Mira got what Erza had asked for and was in for a shock.

Erza cut a third of the cake off, placed it on the other plate, and slid it over to Lizzie.

_Erza was giving away cake_.

Even Levy didn't know what to think about that. She and Mira shared amazed looks and stood there staring uncomprehendingly at what had taken place. The requip mage, unaware of the spectacle she had just caused, began to make small talk with her biggest fan, and Levy remembered that she needed to talk to Master Makarov about the job.

"You guys can handle Lizzie for a few minutes, right?" she asked Mira, "I need to go talk to Master Makarov for a little bit—"

"First…" Mira gestured for Levy to meet her at the end of the bar and the bluenette did so, unsure of what she was getting herself into. "What's your relation to Lizzie?"

Levy was speechless for a few moments before she asked, "Did everyone think we were related when we walked in the door? We're not…in fact…" Levy pulled out the request paper and showed it to Mira before continuing, "…her parents were running really late this morning and begged me to take her and they were so nice about it that I couldn't possibly refuse…plus the fact that they're offering so many jewels! I thought about splitting it with Lucy if she'll help me, because I'm not exactly good with kids, but I'll have to see if the master will approve it first. If not…well, I guess I'm babysitting without getting anything for it and I'll have just a few days to cram small jobs in to pay rent after her parents get back."

"Oh…" Mira looked almost disappointed. "I almost thought…well, never mind…"

She made to turn around but Levy grabbed her shoulder, curiosity peaked. She wasn't sure she wanted to know, but then again she did want to know. It was a very conflicted feeling.

"You almost thought…what?"

"Well…your hair is blue and her hair is blue…you could almost be sisters!" Mira started, but Levy stared her down. She had a feeling that hair color wasn't all that was on the matchmaker's mind, let alone siblings. So Mira continued, "Your eyes are brown…"

"Yes, but her eyes are a kind of reddish-brown," Levy pointed out.

"Well…" Mira's matchmaking glint was in her eyes and Levy wasn't sure that she wanted to hear what was coming, "…Gajeel's eyes are red…"

Levy's eyes widened and she stared at Mirajane, mouth agape and cheeks burning, for several long moments.

"Sh-she's too old, even if we _were_ like that—wait! I mean—"

"Yeah, I realized that a bit later," Mira sighed, almost disappointedly, and then said, "but oh, well. There's still time."

Before Levy could reply indignantly and embarrassedly, Mira patted her on the shoulder and continued, "You were going to talk to Master Makarov though, weren't you? I'll see you back out here when you're done!"

And the white-haired woman was gone before Levy could even open her mouth. The bluenette huffed indignantly, crossing her arms and hoping that the flush in her cheeks was looking more like anger than embarrassment.

Really, though, did Mirajane _have_ to mention the tall, dark-haired iron dragonslayer that Levy just _might_ like a _teensy little bit_…? And let alone insinuate that they had…well, just the fact that, for an instant, Mira and a few others had thought Lizzie could have been their _child_. Of all things, they thought Levy had been pregnant and hadn't told them? What kind of person did Mira think the bookworm was?! If she had been, the white-haired woman would have been one of the first to know!

_Why am I thinking about being pregnant?!_ The bluenette suddenly realized. Putting a hand to her face, Levy groaned, shook her head, and turned toward the stairs. She picked up the wrinkled request form from the counter beside her and headed at last for the stairs.

At the master's office door, she took a somewhat nervous breath.

"Well, here goes nothing."

* * *

**I'm sorry it's short and it's also kind of a filler, but I decided this would be a good place to leave it. I made this part of the story a LOT longer than I intended; this is only a portion of the brief idea I had jotted down for the chapter.**

**Anywho, please forgive me! I'm heading back to my dorm tomorrow, though, (I've been on my fall break while I typed this) so I may not have time to write until around the middle of December. I'll probably be trying to update **_**Fueling the Fire**_** then, though.**

**Anyway, thank you so, so much for reading and again, please forgive me for the long wait!**


	3. The Job Begins

**What's this? An update? Whoa.**

**Anywho, I figured I should at least try to update while I was on break. I go back to my dorm on January 11****th****, so from then until sometime in May, updates will be very scarce or not at all. I will say that right now, unless next semester is different from last.**

**And without any further ado, I give to you **_**Blood and Iron**_**, chapter three.**

* * *

Levy knocked on the door to the master's office, still somewhat nervous. What would he say when she told him she'd kind of accepted a job for them without his approval? She hadn't really had much of a choice, granted, but it was still a scary thought. No one liked to see Master Makarov angry, least of all Levy. He was absolutely _terrifying_.

"Come in!" his voice sounded from the other side of the door, and she straightened her shoulders before opening the door.

There, sitting on top of his desk just as she'd been expecting, was the master of Fairy Tail. And upon seeing him, all of Levy's nervousness just kind of dissipated. It was the master; of course he'd understand the situation as long as she could explain it. And since Makarov wasn't nearly as quick-tempered or impatient as Natsu or Gray, Levy would have plenty of time to explain the entirety of the circumstances surrounding her current predicament.

"Ah, Levy. I don't see you here often. What is it you needed?"

Levy smiled then and stepped into the office, fear forgotten.

* * *

Downstairs, while Levy began her talk with Master Makarov, Erza was still entertaining little Lizzie with the help of Lucy and Mirajane. The little girl had finally gotten over being star-struck in the presence of the Titania and was now asking rather clever questions for a girl her age. Most of the questions were about the various armors that Erza could re-quip, or the many weapons, but still clever questions nonetheless.

"It's better to use the Lightning Empress armor when you're fighting someone like Laxus, right?"

How she knew about Laxus, the women didn't know, but they weren't going to ask questions. She'd asked a lot of questions about the practicality of certain armor or weapons in specific conditions and was really intent when Erza gave answers.

"Usually it is," Lucy started to explain more in depth because Erza's mouth was full of strawberry cake and Lizzie directed her attention to the blonde for a while.

"It looks like you've got quite the admirer, Erza," Mira said softly to the re-quip mage when Lizzie unexpectedly asked if Lucy was Fairy Tail's celestial mage that she and her mother had read about. The blonde was then the main focus for the little blunette and Erza nodded to Mira absently while taking another bite of her cake. They continued listening in on the conversation that the miniature of Levy was having with their blonde nakama.

"I heard you had a lot of the gold keys," Lizzie said slowly, looking up at Lucy. Almost shyly, she asked, "Can I see one? Can you summon one of your spirits here?"

Lucy laughed and smiled brightly at the little girl. Erza and Mirajane both noted that she seemed rather good with kids, despite her sometimes screechy nature. Levy had obviously seen this side of Lucy before but to some of the others it came as a mild surprise. With the way she treated the somewhat childish Natsu at times, you would never expect her to be so good with kids.

"Of course!" the celestial mage winked. "What's your zodiac sign, Lizzie?"

"I'm an Aquarius," the small child said proudly. Lucy's face dropped a tiny bit but brightened up quickly. "Do you have that key?"

"It was the first key I ever got," the blonde confided not-so-secretly. "Do you want to come with me to the fountain outside? I need water to summon her."

"Yeah! I wanna see!"

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Lucy?" Mira asked tentatively as Lucy helped little Lizzie down from her stool. "You know that Aquarius can be a little…testy sometimes. Are you sure you want to call her out for something like this?"

"It's fine," Lucy waved it off. "It's been a while anyway. Just as long as maybe you or Erza come out to watch after Lizzie while I call on her?"

"We'll come," the now empty plate in front of Erza was pushed towards Mira as the redhead stood from her stool.

* * *

"I see," Master Makarov nodded at Levy's explanation of the events that had led to the situation at hand. "You were quite unable to refuse, weren't you? It's your nature to be kind and considerate like that so it's no wonder."

"I'm sorry," Levy said sheepishly, starting to look down.

"Not at all, not at all," the master waved his hands and shook his head insistently. "It's not a problem in the least. I would have accepted the request anyway. I understand that it was on rather short notice, and they've been really generous with the reward they've offered you because of that."

"It's a really large amount for three days of babysitting," Levy agreed. "I didn't believe what I was hearing when Lizzie's mother first said it. It's almost too much."

_Like they're expecting something to go wrong…_

"I'm sure to you it might seem that way, but you have no children of your own yet," at this, Makarov stared off into the distance with a faraway look. Levy knew instantly that he was thinking of the past, before his own son had such a drastic turnabout. "You don't understand that a parent will do anything to ensure their child's safety, especially if it's their only child. All of us who are parents or even grandparents…we protect our children at any and all costs."

"Like you protect the guild…"

She hadn't meant to say it out loud, but it had come and she could do nothing to stop it now. Master Makarov just smiled at her.

"Yes. Exactly."

"So…the 500,000 jewel reward _isn't_ completely unreasonable? Is that what you're saying?" Levy was still trying to wrap her mind around the huge number being offered. She still couldn't believe it was just for babysitting. The cogs in her head were turning and something close to the truth was starting to form.

"Not at all. Not where one's children are concerned. A child is priceless…and especially if the mother and father are in business. Any number of company enemies could be after the child for various reasons."

That was the conclusion that Levy had come to already and hearing it from the guild master's mouth made it all the more plausible that it was the reason for such a high reward. And on that note she was reminded that Lizzie's own father had mentioned the possibility…so maybe he did fear that something would happen. That's why he didn't bother hiring a normal babysitter—after all, any random person could just be paid off to _lose track_ of the child at any given time.

"Smart…" Levy mused to herself, although she did say it aloud.

"Getting a mage guild like us to take the job? Very smart," Master Makarov agreed even though he knew it wasn't directed at him. He then chose to continue, "At any rate…are you willing to take on the job yourself, knowing the possibilities, or would you rather we had Mira put it up for grabs?"

Levy thought of the little girl, and a plan formed slowly in my head.

"What job?" Levy asked, grinning slightly at the master. He knew she was up to something. "I'm just taking care of my little sister for a while, is all."

"Little sister, eh…?"

"After all, Mirajane did make the remark that she looks an awful lot like me because we have similar hair color and all. It's not too much of a stretch to call her my little sister, if you didn't know that I really should be twenty-six now instead of nineteen…" Levy continued to think about it for a few moments until the guild master cut in.

"In that case, you have my full consent. I'll have Mira register you for the job officially in our books and that will be that. Now…shouldn't you be getting to know your 'little sister' better?"

The emphasis on 'little sister' was just obvious enough for her to notice his easy acceptance of her plan and also the fact that he was dismissing her. She stood from her seat quickly and did a short and quick bow of her head. Before she left she called a quick, "Thank you!" to him and then she let the door close with a gentle snap behind her.

* * *

When Levy made it back downstairs it was to find the back door opening to reveal three drenched women and the absolutely soaked child in their midst. The solid script mage stared blankly at the group of four. She had been absent for _fifteen minutes_, at most. _Fifteen minutes. _How had Lucy, Mirajane, Erza, and Lizzie managed to get themselves soaked to the bone in so short a time?!

"Oh, hello, Levy!" Mira beamed widely at the blue-haired girl, as if nothing was wrong. Lucy at least had the decency to look a little sheepish at their current state. "How did your talk with Master Makarov go?"

"What?" the talk with the guild master had momentarily escaped her mind, but after realizing what Mira was asking Levy shook her head and answered, "Fine everything's worked out…but never mind that. What in Fiore happened to you guys?"

Finally, the little giggling girl in the midst of the three women couldn't hold it in any longer. She squealed and ran to give Levy a huge, wet hug around her knees and cried excitedly, "Aquarius is so _awesome_!"

"A-Aquarius…? _Oh_."

That would definitely explain why they were all soaking wet. Aquarius was always a little testy, even on her good days.

"I asked Lizzie what her star sign was," Lucy shrugged helplessly. Levy could understand completely then—after asking and getting Lizzie's zodiac sign, and realizing that it was one of the keys Lucy had, the blonde wouldn't let herself disappoint the little girl.

"Aquarius was so cool," the little girl piped up again tugging on Levy's shirt with her wet hands. "First she yelled at Lucy, which was really mean, but then _whoosh!_ And we were all wet!"

Levy couldn't help it then. She started to giggle and knelt down to Lizzie's height. "I'm glad you had fun while I was gone, then. But you'd better get dry soon. You'll catch a cold if you wear those wet clothes for too much longer."

"Oh, yeah…" she said, as if it hadn't occurred to her yet.

"Here," the older blue-haired woman smiled at the child and wrote something in the air. _Dry_ flew towards the little girl and burst around her in a warm breeze. Lizzie giggled as if it was tickling her and when the word disappeared, she was dry even down to the last strand of her blue hair. "Is that better?"

The six-year-old nodded excitedly, beaming.

"A little help over here, please?" Lucy's voice timidly asked her best female friend, and Levy looked up with a thoughtful expression.

"I don't know…"

"I'll be fine," Erza said, promptly requipping into a different outfit where her wet hair was tied back in a sloppy bun. "Mirajane, could I get another piece of that cake?"

"Of course, Erza!" The eldest white-haired sibling didn't seem to mind that she was drenched, but Levy would have felt kind of bad to leave them all soaked so she sent more words at all three of them, Erza included anyway because her skin was still wet even if her clothes weren't.

"Thanks, Levy!" Lucy breathed a sigh of relief and rolled her shoulders. The blue-haired woman knew it was because she no longer had the cloth sticking to her skin—that's just how close they were. "I didn't have a change of clothes with me and I didn't want to walk back like that…"

The solid-script mage just laughed and shook her head at the blonde.

* * *

"What's with the squirt, Bookworm?"

At the voice, so close behind her, a shiver went up Levy's spine. She and Lizzie both turned from their seats at a table with Lucy and Lisanna to look at the tall, intimidating dragonslayer behind them. It hadn't occurred to Levy until just then, when Gajeel leaned down to inspect the little girl more closely, that he might scare her. Especially with examining her so critically with his red eyes…and all his piercings…and his height…and oh _Mavis_, all kids were _terrified_ of Gajeel when they first met him…!

"I'm Lizzie!"

Levy blinked once, just about to tell Gajeel off for frightening the six-year-old. She closed her open mouth and tried to think of something else.

"Big sister Levy is gonna take care of me for a while while Mommy and Daddy are out of town on business!"

The whole process had been run through Mirajane already and it was quite official now. Master had come down about fifteen minutes after the Aquarius incident and talked to the white-haired barmaid about it, and also to meet the little girl himself.

"That so?" Gajeel cocked an eyebrow and Levy wondered if he was thinking the same as her—why wasn't the little girl screaming and hiding?

"Hey, mister, did all those piercings hurt?"

The innocent question took everyone who heard aback for a moment. Before long, Lisanna began to giggle, and then Laki and Levy and Natsu nearby started chuckling. Gray joined in, even in Natsu's headlock, and the other nearby guild members did so as well. Those who didn't know what was going on just looked over in curiosity which turned to amazement when Gajeel's stunned look turned into a full, throaty laugh.

"Not me," he said, shocking Levy by pinching her charge's nose. Lizzie made a sound of protest as Gajeel continued, "I'm a lot tougher than a squirt like you."

"Hmph," Lizzie pouted, rubbing her nose, then said, "I bet big sister Levy or Lucy or Erza could take you! They're tough!"

"Maybe they could," Gajeel shrugged. "Got doubts about Bookworm and Bunny Girl…but the other one…now her I'd probably lose to. But what's it to a squirt like you?"

Levy was astonished when the black-haired iron dragonslayer ruffled the little girl's hair gently.

"I—I don't know," she admitted, pouting and trying to fix her bangs, which were sticking up.

Lucy started to giggle then, and the other girls couldn't help but join in. Without a word, Gajeel took his leave, raising a hand as he not only left their table but left the guild as well. In the meantime, Gray and Natsu had begun to cuss loudly at each other and Lev y was just beginning to notice.

"You bastard!" Natsu roared at Gray, leaping. Gray, in turn, started to attack Natsu as well.

Levy, after hearing a few exchanges as they punched each other and called each other names, grew furious. There was a _child_ there, for Mavis' sake! Couldn't they watch their mouths? But no…they couldn't, and that was a fact that was quickly apparent.

When they were both thrown backwards by each other's punch, Levy stood up unnoticed by them.

_Brick Wall_ appeared in between them as they leapt back towards the fray and both guys hit the wall face-first in their charge for each other.

"What the fuck…?" Gray asked, glaring at the blue-haired mage before he realized that she had a murderous glint in her own eyes and her magic pen was still in her hand. He resorted to rubbing his head where he'd hit her word wall as she turned her gaze to the muttering Natsu. His face was smashed against the wall with his arm stuck in the middle of the a.

"The hell was that for?!" he grunted, yanking his arm free.

"There is a _child_ here," Levy said slowly, gesturing at the table. "Watch your language."

"You had to crack my head on a brick wall to tell me _that_?" Gray groused, climbing to his feet. "You coulda just yelled it or something."

"And how do I know you could hear it over Natsu calling you names…or over _you_ calling _him_ names?" the solid-script mage crossed her arms and tapped her foot. When Gray didn't answer, she said, "Exactly. No guarantees, right? So I suggest you either keep your tongues in check or take this outside where no one can hear you."

"And if we don't wanna?" Natsu grumbled this time, adjusting his scarf.

"Then _I_ will personally find a place where no one can hear you scream…" Levy grinned mischievously, "…and show you why you should have listened to me in the first place."

Something about her expression made Natsu stutter, "A-aye!" and scramble to his feet as the brick wall she'd conjured disappeared. He grabbed Gray by the underwear—his only article of clothing—and dragged him outside.

"Woooow," Lizzie said from behind, "you really are cool, Levy!"

Levy grinned a little sheepishly at that and said, "Ah, thanks…by the way, Lizzie, please don't pay attention to anything they were yelling, okay?"

"I have to wash my mouth out with soap if I say bad words," the six-year-old confided, leaning closer and saying it rather softly. She then sat up and said in a normal tone, "And soap tastes yucky so I don't say bad words."

"Is that so?" Lucy asked then, smiling kindly. "That's a very good thing."

Levy let them talk as she stretched and went to ask Mira a few questions at the bar. When she was there, she caught a glance of the clock and was shocked to find it was already ten thirty at night. What was Lizzie's bedtime? Surely she needed to get some sleep—it had been an exhausting day. After all, she'd been introduced to Fairy Tail. What's more tiring than dealing with them when you're not used to it?

"I'm sorry, Lizzie," Levy said when she got back to the table, "but we should probably be going now. It's getting pretty late."

"What time is it?" Lisanna asked curiously.

"It's already ten thirty," Levy answered, and Lizzie jumped up with a gasp.

"Oh, no! It's way past my bedtime! If Mommy finds out I didn't go to sleep like a good girl—"

"It's okay," Levy said, "we just lost track of time. It will be our little secret, okay?" she winked at little Lizzie and the girl smiled brightly then.

"Okay!"

"Okay then," Lucy stood, "Why don't you get your bag from Mira, Lizzie?"

She made a noise of assent and went to do as the blonde had suggested. Lucy looked at Levy and then said, "Her parents are wealthy business owners, right?"

"Yeah. They're worried someone might try to take Lizzie for ransom…"

"That's what I was wondering," Lucy glanced over to where Mira was cheerfully talking to Lizzie as she handed her the backpack. "You need to be really careful with this, Levy. The business world is pretty cutthroat. Just go straight home and lock your door and windows…just in case."

"We'll be fine, Lucy," Levy gave her blonde friend a hug then, smiling at her. "I'm not going to let anything happen to Lizzie."

Lucy nodded, stepping back to sit with Lisanna.

"We'll see you two tomorrow, right Levy?" Mira called from the bar.

"You bet!" Levy called back, smiling and waving. Lizzie ran up to her and took her hand quickly, beaming as brightly as any child can. "We'll see you tomorrow, everyone!"

"Bye!" Lisanna waved cheerily. A few other goodbyes were said as the two blue-haired girls left the building. It was dark out, of course, but a few of the streetlamps were still lit so they could find their way quite easily.

It was a fairly comfortable walk for a while, Lizzie gushing about how much she loved Fairy Tail now more than ever and Levy telling her about some of the things they'd done in the past. But then Levy started to feel as if they were being watched, and she started to pay more attention to their surroundings.

Levy glanced more thoroughly around them when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. They were so close to her new apartment—since she'd moved out of Fairy Hills, she lived a little farther away than she used to but it was worth it. But they weren't close enough.

She didn't expect people to come after Lizzie so quickly, but what else could it be?

"Excuse me, Miss," one of the shadows she'd noticed stepped out into the open. He was a brunette with a scruffy beard and a bad look about him. What he said next only proved that he was up to absolutely no good here. "If you hand over Elizabeth Holder right now without a fuss…you won't be harmed. If you refuse we'll have to take her by force."

"What?" Levy quickly feigned ignorance, the cogs in her brain turning rapidly. She had to think of something—maybe they'd believe her if she could come up with a good enough story. She highly doubted it, but in the event it resorted to a fight she could maybe take on two or three people…the only problem was that she couldn't tell how many people were around her. It was darker here than in other parts of town because it was a small side street. "What are you talking about?"

"Give us the girl…_now_."

"Lizzie? What on earth do you want with my little sister? And where did you even get the name Holder from?"

She felt Lizzie's fingers tighten around her own in fright. Levy's own heart was beating rapidly but she kept on her confused façade. She was hoping it wouldn't result in a fight but her hopes were dashed when a fire mage caught her shirt on fire.

"Levy!" Lizzie shrieked as the solid-script mage hurriedly yanked out her pen and doused herself with the word _water_. Still, the little girl clasped Levy's hand tightly. The older woman took a breath and glanced around her. The breath caught in her throat as she realized she was vastly outnumbered. Ten to one, if not more than that.

"Lizzie," Levy said softly, "when I tell you to I want you to run, okay?"

"What?" she looked with wide, frightened eyes.

"It's okay…it'll be okay, Lizzie," the blue-haired woman assured the child, "I just want you to run and hide, okay? I'll find you when it's all over. Okay?"

"Levy…"

"Do you understand, Lizzie?"

Levy took on a snappish tone. She didn't want to hurt the little girl's feelings but Lizzie needed to understand how dire the situation could be. She also wanted to hide the true odds from her. It was a lose-lose situation for Levy, but she would make sure Lizzie ran.

"Yes!" she squeaked.

"Good."

"Have you changed your mind, brat?" the brunette asked harshly, something glinting in his hand. It was definitely a blade of some kind, and Levy didn't want it anywhere near Lizzie. "Give us the girl."

"I'll never give her to you," Levy said, then wrote _cages_ in the air. Each letter became its own cage, trapping two to four of the enemy in each one. "Lizzie, _now_!"

"Be safe, big sister!" she cried quickly, fleeing the scene. A man who wasn't caged reached out and grabbed onto her backpack but Levy's _cut_ severed the straps from Lizzie's shoulders. The man tripped and Levy quickly trapped him in another _cage_. Fire, water, earth—all sorts of magic came blasting at her from within the cages and she was hard-pressed to dodge them all or block them with her quickly scrawled _shield_.

_Please be safe, Lizzie, _the older woman thought as something nicked her across the forehead.

With that, Levy wrote _chain_ and _tripwire_ to trip up guys coming at her from a few different directions and _bomb_ exploded near the brunette man's feet and he was blasted backwards. The solid-script mage of Fairy Tail was not going to go down without a fight. It was her job to protect Lizzie. She'd taken the responsibility so no one would get the better of her.

She gritted her teeth and began to write again.

* * *

**I've been thinking the whole time that this was moving too quick…but to be honest this was all originally a part of the three paragraph plan for chapter 2, so I'm one chapter ahead with this. It might be longer than the ten or fifteen chapters I had planned eh?**

**Well I hope this doesn't seem too rushed. I'm kind of worried about that still…but oh well. I needed to update, so I did.**

**I hope you enjoyed! Please be patient!**

**And I'm sorry for sounding a little bitchy here but…TELLING ME TO UPDATE SOON DOES NOT HELP AT ALL. I am a college student now and there are times when I'm too busy for fanfiction.**

**Thank you for reading!**


	4. Evidence

**Okay so I've been itching to write this chapter for a while. At least the beginning. So this update is a little earlier than I expected for it to be. **

**Please note that after this updates may take A LONG TIME because I'm going back to college in a few days.**

**Without further ado, I give you chapter 4 of **_**Blood and Iron**_**.**

* * *

Lucy Heartfilia jiggled her foot a little, staring blankly towards the door to Fairy Tail. Mirajane sat the glass of water that the blonde had asked for at her elbow and Lucy jerked out of her thoughts long enough to say, "Thanks , Mira," and take a drink.

"It's no problem, Lucy!" Mira replied cheerfully, taking to wiping out a glass to fill it with Macao's morning beer.

For a few minutes, the celestial mage leisurely sipped at her water and watched the eldest of the white-haired siblings of Fairy Tail bustle about, taking drinks to the usual early birds. There was Macao, with a beer—why he had one in the morning Lucy couldn't fathom—Erza's strawberry milk, Juvia's tea, Natsu's whatever-he-asked-for-that-morning, orange juice for Elfman, and…well, Levy usually got some kind of juice, but she wasn't there yet today. She did have a kid with her, of course. Lizzie was probably completely tuckered out from staying so late last night so Levy might let her sleep in. It would only make sense, so Lucy logically shouldn't have felt so nervous. And yet for some reason, she did.

Mira surprised her when she refilled Lucy's glass. She offered another smile, this one gentler and almost comforting, and she asked, "Lucy, what's bothering you this morning?"

"Oh…it's nothing," the blonde tried, lifting her glass as if for a toast, "thanks for the refill."

The takeover mage sighed and looked at Lucy sternly. "Don't pretend that nothing's bugging you, Lucy. I know that you're worried about something. You're always like this when you start fretting."

"Well—" Lucy began, but the door burst open roughly then and attracted all attention; after all, Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Lucy were all present already.

"Excuse me," said the Magnolian police officer in front of his two companions. "I'm from the Magnolian Police Force and we have reason to believe there were Fairy Tail mages involved in a scuffle late last night. Could we speak to the guild master?"

"I'm right here," Master Makarov was at the top of the stairs and came down, eyeing the police officers warily. "But anything you say can be said in front of everyone here."

"Very well," a petite female officer stepped up, papers in her hand. They were most likely the report on the scuffle they'd mentioned. "Late last night, there seems to have been a fight involving mages on the small side street Iris Lane. There was evidence of fire magic in the form of several scorch marks, as well as wood magic and metal magic. A backpack meant for a young child was found at the scene, straps severed. And lastly, all around were fragments of what we believe was solid script magic. You have mages of all these types do you not?"

"Solid script?!" Lucy stood abruptly.

"Lucy," Makarov said sharply, instantly making the blonde snap her mouth closed. But everyone else had caught exactly that—the small child's backpack and the evidence of solid script magic. "Natsu, Macao, Romeo…were any of you the fire mage in question?"

"I was here 'til midnight in the guild library," Romeo gestured, "looking up some stuff with Wendy. Then I walked her home and went home to bed."

"It's true," Wendy said in a small voice, and in any other circumstance the celestial mage knew there would be a light blush dusting her cheeks.

"I was passed out here until about three in the morning…" Natsu scratched his neck. "I lost another drinking contest to Cana."

"I went home around eight," Macao said, arms crossed. "I just got back from my last job yesterday and was tired."

Mira kind of raised her hand and said, "I can confirm all three of those stories. I was here almost all night. I actually still haven't slept…Lisanna promised to take over the bar in about ten minutes so I could go get some sleep."

"Alright then. I believe you. Laki?"

"She walked back with me around eleven forty-five," Erza spoke up authoritatively. The officers knew who she was and dared not argue—the third officer ticked something off on a clipboard he'd been taking notes on. "We were back by about eleven fifty-two and both went to bed."

"Gajeel?"

The iron dragonslayer looked straight at Master Makarov with his red eyes, glanced at the police officers, and then looked back to the short old man. "I left here sometime after eleven and went home."

"Sir, I'm not so sure we can just take their word for it—" the first officer started, but Makarov held up his hand and the man cut himself off quickly. He, of course, knew Fairy Tail's reputation. He didn't want to step on their master's toes because he thought it could bode ill for the city. And, if the thought, the fear, running through Lucy's mind happened to be true, then she knew it could probably turn out bad for the police. It would be them keeping the nakama of Fairy Tail away from one of their own, and that simply wasn't done.

"Please take me to the scene," the guild master's request took a few people off guard, but only for a few seconds. "Lucy, Natsu, Mira, Wendy, Gray, Erza, Juvia, Happy, Pantherlily, and Gajeel as well."

"Ah…might I ask why?"

"One of my early birds hasn't arrived yet today and she's a solid script mage. She's on a job right now and I'm afraid she might have run into some trouble. I'd like to either confirm or deny my fears and I think looking at the evidence myself would be the best way to go about it. Do you have any objections?" the stern tone that her guild master took with the police made Lucy certain that even if they had objections, they would immediately be discarded.

"I didn't realize it could be something along those lines," the first officer said, "and I sincerely apologize for the delay. We will head to the scene immediately. Please, everyone who is coming, follow me."

Mirajane traded her duties with Lisanna a few moments early, Gajeel pushed himself off the wall, Happy perched on Natsu's head, and everyone else involved stood and followed Master Makarov and the police officers out of the doors.

* * *

The trek to the scene of the fight made Lucy's skin crawl. They were following the path that she usually took when visiting Levy's apartment. Part of her hoped it was entirely coincidental, but since the crime scene supposedly had evidence of solid script magic, the blonde's hopes were faltering in a big way. And she had no doubt that Levy had been involved when they came upon the scene where about three other cops were milling around, examining the crumbled words on the ground.

"Over here, Captain! These letters definitely spell '_cage_'!" a small, mousy sort of man examining the fragments on the ground called to a fourth officer that Lucy hadn't noticed before. He was standing in the middle surveying the activity around him with a furrowed brow.

"Keep looking, see if any of the clues tell us why they were fighting," the captain said, looking thoughtful at this new piece of news. He heard footsteps then and looked up to find the three officers and the entourage from Fairy Tail.

"Captain, this is Master Makarov of Fairy Tail and a few of the guild members. They're here to conduct a small investigation of their own," the main officer from the trio leading the mages gestured to them.

"Why do you want to look around?" the captain said, stepping over a pile of letter-rubble to face the mages gathered. "Were suspicions true? Was it just a scuffle with your guild members? How many were involved? Don't you understand that it's disturbing the peace in the middle of the night and we can levy charges for that?"

At the sound of _levy_ even though it wasn't used as Levy's name, everyone kind of stiffened.

"Was it something I said?"

He was sharp; he noticed their involuntary reactions to his words.

"Excuse me," Mira stepped forward to save Master Makarov from talking, "but we think one of our members was attacked by other mages. She took a job that seemed kind of dangerous and we were afraid she was harmed in some way. We came to see if we could find evidence of that as soon as we heard that there was a solid script mage involved in whatever fight happened here. We also heard about a backpack…part of Levy's job was babysitting and protecting the daughter of a wealthy business owner, and she had a backpack with her. Could we see the one you found?"

"Rika!" the captain barked and a woman near a magic-powered vehicle stood quickly.

"Yes, sir?"

"Bring that backpack over and let the Fairy Tail mages see it. We might just have a lead on what happened here and why."

Lucy inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. As long as these officers were going to cooperate, perhaps they could find Levy before anything bad happened. Maybe she was already at home and just too exhausted from the fight.

"It was them," Gajeel said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him where he was crouched on the ground and he stood with his back to them and turned around slowly. It took a minute, but Lucy was the first to notice the orange tribal patterned headband dangling from his clenched fist. It hadn't come undone; it had been cut off. There was a fairly clean cut, but it had red splotches on it.

Worry plagued the celestial spirit mage even more than it had already been doing.

"Why are you touching the evidence?!" the female detective nearly shrieked as she came over, plastic-wrapped backpack in hand. Just a glance showed that it really was Lizzie's backpack, and Lucy's heart dropped. The already futile hopes of hers had been completely and utterly dashed in just a few minutes.

"This headband belongs to the solid script mage we were worried about," Mira said sharply. "And that backpack is without a doubt the property of Lizzie, the little girl. So tell us…are there any signs of where they went after this skirmish here?"

The blonde wondered if she was the only one who caught the slight tremor in Mira's voice. The look on Wendy's face proved that the youngest dragonslayer had caught it too, and they turned their attention quickly back to surveying the area. And then Wendy made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat that drew attention to her. Her nose was scrunched up in distaste but a more concerned look was now hitched onto her features. She sniffed again and made her way over to the nearest building to look at a dark spot on the wall.

When Wendy touched it, she slowly raised her hand to her nose and then scrunched her face up again.

"Excuse me, officers," she said faintly, "but this is dried blood on the wall here."

Erza took two quick steps to catch the little dragonslayer as she stumbled away from the wall, covering her nose. She didn't like the smell of blood—she'd confessed that to Lucy and Levy once after a brawl when everyone else was too out of it to care what the three were talking about. It made her feel sick to her stomach. It was amazing that she could deal with healing wounded people when blood affected her that much.

"Big sister Lucy!"

A sound came from in between the houses to Lucy's left and a bush rustled. Before anyone had any time to react, there was a small blue-haired child clinging to Lucy's waist and wailing incoherently. The blonde caught words like 'big sister Levy' and 'mean mages' before she dropped down and took the small girl in her arms.

"Lizzie! You're safe! Thank goodness…"

"But…Levy!" she pushed back out of Lucy's hug just a little, red-brown eyes brimming with tears. "It was the mean m-mage man that Daddy told me to watch out f-for! Big sister Levy t-told me to run so I d-did…but they took her away and I d-don't know where!"

She broke down sobbing and the blonde just hugged her. Everyone else present had heard and the police captain looked on the scene.

"This is the girl then, I take it?"

"Yes," Master Makarov nodded.

"We can take her into custody and—"

"Don't be stupid," Gray snapped suddenly, the first words he'd spoken. "Your mages don't have anything on even our weakest members. You think you could keep her safe when they took out one of our best? No. We'll keep her safe. We've just gotta find out who's gonna take care of her and who's gonna go after Levy."

Levy risked her life to save Lizzie. That much was blaringly obvious even to the densest of people. And since her best friend had asked if Lucy would help take care of Lizzie when they were at the guild, the blonde knew that Levy would want her to take up the job now. No matter how much Lucy wanted to go after the people who had hurt Levy and dragged her off to who-knows-where, she would do what Levy would want her to do.

"Natsu," Lucy spoke up then, stroking the crying six-year-old's hair comfortingly, "Gajeel."

"What, Luce?"

"What is it?"

The two said their different words in unison but it didn't really matter. It was the same idea either way.

"I'm counting on you guys to find Levy and bring her back," the blonde told them, looking up as sternly as she could manage. "I'll take care of Lizzie from now on. We'll go to my apartment now so she can get some rest and then she can tell us a little more when she's slept."

"Yes…that seems best for now," Master Makarov agreed. "Mira, you go home and rest now too because we'll need your help later. I'll have Laki take care of the bar for a while and Lisanna will go over to Lucy's to help. Natsu and Gajeel, I'll put you two in charge of tracking them down. Gray and Happy with work with Natsu and Lily and Juvia will work with Gajeel. Erza, I want you to be ready to do whatever you need to, be it aid Lucy and Lisanna or the search parties. Understood?"

"Yes!" everyone chorused, except for Wendy.

"I-I'll help Lucy and Lisanna, too!" the youngest dragonslayer piped up. "I'll be able to smell strangers if they come near and can give them warnings."

"Good," the master nodded. "Let's get to work."

It was a quickly constructed plan, but Lucy could find no fault in it yet so she didn't protest at all. It was best to get organized as soon as possible—the quicker everything was in order, the sooner that Levy would be found and brought home.

* * *

**Sorry. IT's pretty rushed and mostly filler and I'm starting to get tired so PLEASE tell me if anything weird has made an appearance so I can correct it. Okay?**

**This will probably be the last update until May unless I find time at some point during the semester. Please bear with me!**

**Thanks so much for reading!**


	5. Investigations

**This is about the fourth time I've sat down to type this chapter. Let's see if it goes any better than the previous three attempts!**

**Without further ado, I bring you **_**Blood and Iron**_**, chapter five!**

* * *

"Excuse me," the police chief interjected as the present members of Fairy Tail began to work out their plan. Lucy had lifted Lizzie into her arms, despite the fact that she was already six years old and weighed nigh on fifty pounds in order to comfort her.

"What is it?" Master Makarov turned to the chief expectantly. His stature may have been small but Lucy could feel the emotions rolling off of him in waves and she knew any opposition by the police—which was likely to come—would be met with fury the likes of which the chief had never had to contend with before. "If you don't have anything important to say, we need to get a move on. The girl can't linger here for very long."

"On whose authority do you have the right to take control of our investigation?!" The female detective, Rika, demanded with the plastic-wrapped bag still in her hand. "This is a crime scene, and whether or not your mage was involved has no meaning—you're defiling the evidence! Remove yourselves at once, and turn over the child to our custody!"

"Rika!" the chief barked at her, and she stood at attention quickly, snapping her mouth closed on further retorts. The superior sighed and turned to the mages then. "I apologize. Rika is new in my division and lacks propriety in cases such as these. Though there are some points I do agree upon. Your mages have touched some valuable evidence, which could have meant the difference between finding the solid script mage you mentioned and never seeing her again. I have to ask you to leave the scene, though I will consent to let you guard the girl."

Master Makarov was furious. Mira looked as though she wanted to soothe him, but Lucy could see she was irritated, too. Lucy herself wanted to slap one of the policemen or women across the face as hard as she could, just to see if it would knock some sense into them, but she refrained because she had a sniffling, crying six year old to deal with.

"Listen here," a growling tone of voice alerted them all to the fury that Gajeel had been masking as he stepped up in front of Lucy and Lizzie with Natsu and Gray at his side. Flames were licking the fire dragonslayer's clenched fists, sometimes trailing as far up his arms as his elbows, but Gajeel was maintaining control. None of his body had yet turned to iron, at any rate, although his voice had gone cold and menacing. "If you think your witless, bumbling _idiots_ can do better than we can, so be it…but we _will_ find the bookworm without your help."

"Gajeel, Natsu, back down," Makarov demanded, then addressed the chief. "What we mean to say is simple. Turn over the bulk of the investigation and full rights to the crime scene to Fairy Tail without complaint. Just so you know we have no intention of further hindering your own investigations, you can leave three of your detectives on the scene with the agreement that, while we will not hinder your investigations, you will not hinder ours. Gajeel and Natsu will head my two investigation teams. Gray and Happy will join Natsu, Pantherlily and Juvia will be with Gajeel."

"I can't allow that, Makarov—"

"You misunderstand," the guild master's eyes narrowed, his voice turned to steel. He was not to be denied. "I am not making a request."

"I still can't allow that," the chief insisted, though there was a bit more wariness about him. "It is against the rules of the precinct, Makarov, you should know that."

"Didn't you hear him, baldy?" Gajeel growled. The police chief was balding, not bald, but it struck a chord with him. "This ain't a request. And if ya still wanna give us trouble…" his arm turned into an iron rod and Natsu's flames licked almost to his shoulders and around his feet. The ground at Gray's feet started to shimmer suspiciously like black ice. "We're prepared to use force."

"We can report you for this. You may be mages, but you still must answer for crimes committed, be it to the police or to the council," Rika piped up, her voice slightly shaky. The intimidation tactics were working on _her_, at least, but Lucy could see they were making an impact on the chief, as well.

Makarov didn't make a move to stop any of it. His arms were crossed, his legs planted wide in a no-nonsense way that would make anyone think twice about crossing him—even more so if he had been even three feet taller than he was. Lucy still wouldn't have crossed him despite his height since _she_ knew what he was capable of.

"Please understand," for the first time, Juvia stepped up. "This is for your own safety, too. Levy is one of Fairy Tail's strongest mages—even Juvia wouldn't be able to beat her easily. If the people who came to attack her come back to this place, your detectives would be much worse off than the mages of the guild. Besides that, you have no sincere attachment to Levy, whereas members of Fairy Tail would do anything to get our nakama back, even if it means breaking the law. Juvia knows that Fairy Tail has a reputation for being destructive...and you don't want that to destroy what _you_ can examine at this crime scene, do you?"

The threat was indirect, subtle, yet clear enough to anyone standing there.

_Let us have our investigation_, Juvia said_, and we'll let you have yours. Deny us, and we'll make it so no one but mages can get any information from the crime scene._

"Either way," Gray said, "we can still investigate, whereas in one circumstance you won't be able to."

"Is that a _threat—_?" Rika began indignantly but her chief cut her off again.

"Silence!" he barked, and every one of his detectives stared at him. No one had been working for a long time, watching this exchange with bated breath. The chief's eyes narrowed. "I see your point, Fairy Tail. I don't like the way you're handling this, but I understand the pain of losing your comrades, of not knowing how they fare. However, you'll share what you learn with my detectives, and mine will share with you. Also, I will request one member of Fairy Tail to come and remain at the precinct for the duration of the investigations, and Rika here will be at Fairy Tail. They'll serve as collateral to make sure we both keep up our ends of the deal."

"Chief—"

"_Don't _argue with me, woman!" the superior snapped at Rika, who looked at her wide-eyed and astonished. "This is the best solution."

"Agreed," Mirajane smiled gently. "And I will gladly join your group at the precinct to represent Fairy Tail, on the condition that I am also allowed to receive the information we acquire from our poking and prodding about."

Her innocent smile made an appearance then—the smile that Lucy feared most. It was more like an '_or else_' sort of smile than anything, and she had the feeling that the police chief understood the same.

"In that case, let us step aside to work out the finer details of our arrangement," Makarov addressed the policeman, more amiably than before though still with the fine edge of steel in his tone. "In the meantime, Natsu and Gajeel, start sniffing around. Lucy, Wendy, Erza, and Lisanna, take Lizzie to Lucy's apartment and stay with her for a while. We'll send someone with news later."

Lizzie clung tightly to Lucy's neck.

"Can you have someone go buy Lizzie some clothes and things?" the blonde spoke up, nodding her head to the bag still in Rika's hand. "I highly doubt _Rika_ here will give us the bag back, since it's evidence, so she'll need some other clothes to wear."

"Rika, you took down the sizes of the clothes, correct?"

"Ah—yes, yes I did, sir!" the woman answered her higher-up quickly and eagerly even though, moments before, she acted like she'd wanted to say something snarky to Lucy.

"You will go buy some clothes for—Lizzie, was it?—and take them to the address that the Fairy Tail mages give you. Then you are to remain there to help however you can for the time being. Don't forget underwear…and also a toothbrush and a hairbrush," the man was thoughtful, so Lucy realized he must have a young daughter of his own. No wonder he'd been quick to concede that Fairy Tail would be able to keep Lizzie safer. "Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Now, Makarov, to finish planning…"

"Yes, let's step over here."

* * *

Back in Lucy's apartment, the Erza was brushing the little blunette's hair gently while Lisanna was singing softly to her—a lullaby about a parakeet that Lucy wasn't too familiar with. It was calming the girl a bit, and her tears had finally stopped although she still sniffled every now and then. Rika had come in about fifteen minutes earlier, standoffish but with the clothes she'd been ordered to bring, and was sitting awkwardly in an armchair, trying to avoid looking at the mages. Wendy stood by the window, gazing down at the street, before pulling the curtains closed.

"I don't smell anything suspicious right now," Wendy told Lucy secretively, out of Lizzie's hearing. "I can't smell any of the other mages from the crime scene, at any rate, and anyone they associate with much should have a similar scent about them. We're okay for now."

"Good," Lucy glanced at where Erza was still brushing the girl's hair. "We need to get her to eat something now…"

"Ah!" Wendy looked appalled, and Lucy was sure that it was because she hadn't thought of it herself. After all, Lizzie probably hadn't eaten in at least fourteen hours now. Lucy smiled at the young dragonslayer to calm her.

An idea came to the blonde then. "You're closer to her age," Lucy told Wendy, "so why don't you go ask her what she wants to eat? Or at least ask her what her favorite food is?"

"Yes!"

The now thirteen year old girl rushed over to where Lizzie was and crouched to her level. She spoke to her softly, gently, and with a small smile on her face. Lucy noticed that Rika was watching, gaze softer than it had been at the crime scene. So she was a woman, after all, and had a softer heart than she'd let on originally.

Wendy came back and told Lucy, "She's still a little jittery, but she said she's starting to feel a little hungry. She wants some kind of pasta, though she said something cheesy with sauce. I was thinking of four-cheese pasta because she made sure to mention that it _wasn't_ macaroni and cheese."

She said it all kind of quickly and nervously, as though she was afraid of getting it wrong, and Lucy ruffled her hair.

"Hey, Rika, could you come help Wendy and I make a late lunch?" Lucy offered kindly, smiling at the officer. She started, looking at the blonde, then nodded.

"Sure."

This detective woman hadn't exactly given Lucy much reason to like her, but she wasn't going to give up on at least making things less awkward around her. If Lucy's suspicions were right, Master Makarov and the police chief—whose name, she had finally remembered, was Hector Browning—were planning on just leaving Rika there with the women and Lizzie. Any little bit would help, though, so Lucy was somewhat grateful. And Rika had some vicious looking nails, so she should be at least a little useful in a fight…

* * *

_Dammit, dammit, dammit!_

This wasn't right. There wasn't a scent _to_ pick up! How was he supposed to find the damn trail that didn't exist? The little Bookworm's blood was in more places than just that wall, there was some on that headband, so _why_ wasn't he picking up the path they'd taken? A scent will linger in the air for a little while, especially when the sniffer is a dragonslayer, but even so…it was a breezy day.

Gajeel wanted to find her. He could smell traces of her scent _everywhere_—she smelled of musty old books but also fresh, just-of-the-press books. She smelled of some old lady's perfume because of the women she worked with when she volunteered at the library, and she smelled like her own personal favorite perfume, a cherry blossom scent. She smelled of the ink that dotted her fingers when she edited Bunny Girl's stories and even jotted down her own poetry and she smelled of hope and sincerity.

She smelled like…she smelled like _Levy._ There was no other way for him to put it.

This whole thing was driving him truly insane. Not knowing where she was or how badly she was hurt…he had never before understood how bad it hurt to have someone he cared for taken from him. And he had to admit—at least to himself—that he cared for her. And he had finally begun to notice that she had feelings for him to some degree and now _this_?

_Damn it all to hell!_

"Dammit!" a voice other than his own howled. Red eyes sought out the pink-haired fire dragonslayer where he crouched low to the ground, sniffing like some sort of bloodhound. "Why can't I smell anything?!"

So it _wasn't_ just Gajeel…

…somehow that wasn't a comfort at all.

"What are ya goin' on about, Flamebrain?" the irritated iron dragonslayer groused, sniffing the air. He hated that her scent was everywhere at this crime scene but he couldn't tell which way it went after that.

"I can't find a trail!" Natsu groaned. "I smell her here," he pointed, "and there, there, and there…but I can't find out which way they took her!"

Gajeel raised an eyebrow at that. The four places Natsu had clearly indicated were obvious ones—the spot on the wall where her blood didn't mingle with anyone else's (because yes, she'd managed to draw blood from her enemies before she was taken), two places where crumbled letters of _shield_ and _wall_ were around a small area, so probably around where she had been standing when she'd been assaulted, and the fourth was the spot on the ground where Gajeel had found her orange tribal headband.

The significance was that Gajeel smelled her _everywhere_, whereas Natsu's greatest scent came from the spots where Gajeel smelled her presence most strongly.

He was better off than the flamebrained idiot, it seemed.

Gray and Juvia were talking to two of the four detectives that had been left behind, gleaning whatever information they could and keeping them out of the dragonslayers' way, but it still wasn't helping. The scents of all the policemen and the enemies that had attacked Levy were _everywhere—_wait a minute.

The _enemies._

Damn it all, why hadn't he thought about them _before _now?! He could search out their scents more easily than he could the Bookworm's…couldn't he? Or…at least Natsu could. He was always better at sniffing things out. The only reason Gajeel was so determined now was because it was _his_ Bookworm at risk, and it seemed that he was better at pinpointing her scent than Natsu.

So that was it…

"You," he said gruffly to Natsu, who looked up at him in a somewhat irritated manner. "Try to sniff out the bastards that attacked her."

Natsu's eyes widened—he hadn't thought of it either. He wasn't even offended that Gajeel had had the audacity to practically order him around. His jaw tightened as he stood up, nodded to the iron dragonslayer, and took a deep breath through the nose.

_Let's see where that gets us_…

* * *

**So…my apologies, another fairly short chapter. For this story, I may have to keep all the chapters between 2k and 3k words…mostly because I'm not too sure how to write Gajeel. I'm not too good at gruff characters yet, nor am I good with writing Juvia, whose view we may see some in here and whose view the entirety of my Gruvia **_**Perpetual Rain**_** is written in…so please bear with me!**

**Anyway…I apologize if there's something lacking in the quality of this chapter. I admit I was a tad rushed with it, but I hope to get some better chapters out later. I had trouble with the interactions of the police and Fairy Tail…so if you have any suggestions I'll consider them!**

**Thanks so much for reading, and I hope I didn't disappoint you!**


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